Studio Saturday - Further developments in zipped pouches

The main studio activity in this week of family illness and playing nursemaid (mainly as cook and babysitter) has been a little light sewing. Back to the comfort-activity of the zipped pouches - not so comfortable though when you suddenly realise that something is back-to-front-to-inside-out and needs ripping out -

 Save that for later. The fun activity was showing a friend how to make The Pouch. She chose a bit of clamp resist (I think; it was dyed so long ago!) indigo, and I used some Travel Lines fabric for mine -

Choosing the linings and zipper tabs was great fun.

My lost zipper foot for the Janome machine hasn't turned up, so I evolved a workaround - first sew the zipper to just the lining - the stitching will be near the edge of the tape (which makes for a dash of colour) and then when you sew the outside onto "the zipper sandwich", follow that line of stitching.

Now I have a number of pouches -

The long one will carry my ruler and brushes to woodblock printing class, and the brush for applying nori can go in the "african" pouch.

A propos of nothing, here are some jolly socks - with swedish origin, and from Japan; the latter have split toes as well as the (hmm, what are they?) yellow bits above the ribbing -

Studio Saturday - sewing and printing but still no pots

The fantasy giraffes are finally finished; why did they take so long?  - 

An extra woodblock printing session on Thursday ...

 My blocks were based on the uneven edges of ikat -

and I got a few prints done, starting with one that combined two different blocks and used one dull colour -

... and moving on to multiple impressions of the same block and various nuances of colour on the same paper -

On Saturday a friend came to do some sewing, so I dug under the workbench to get out the second machine, and dusted and wiped in a corner that doesn't see the light of day too often. Usually the rolling towers of drawers live in front of the old sketchbooks and the other bits - hmm, what actually is  in there?

 The room is still set up for sewing -

but at least that serpent's nest of zippers has been sorted.

We used a very few of them in making lined zipped pouches -

... and hardly made a dent in the mound of fabric -

Now that we've done prototypes, a production line could produce a few dozen more ... or maybe just a few more. But basically the aim was to have a small project successfully done, as we are both trying to encourage ourselves (and each other) to get back to garment sewing.

Monday miscellany

The narrowest street in London (via)

***

Mindfulness (a personal definition) - if you have no memory of eating that biscuit, then you have not eaten it; and if on going to the biscuit package to get the uneaten biscuit you find it more depleted than you remember, just never mind, because invisible biscuits have no calories. But, when eating this biscuit, take small bites and pay attention. 

***

Bag making, pouch making? There's a roundup of free tutorials here. And more here. And no doubt elsewhere.

***

Headline of the week (as seen on the Londonist):  Rare iguanas found in socks at Heathrow.

***

This beautiful book (photo from here) is Copernicus's autograph manuscript of De revolutionibus, in which he presents his theory that the planets, Earth among them, revolved around the sun - rather than everything revolving around the Earth. The book was published just before Copernicus's death in 1453; the manuscript was acquired by the Jagiellonian Library in Krakow in 1956 and is kept in a locked case in a locked room. 

***

Family history - my grandmother, mother, aunt, me, and doll Bärbel (and long-forgotten cat) in Quebec, spring 1954. Aunt Else is wearing trousers (we lived in a skiing town in the Laurentians) and everyone is wearing handknits - those women always had something on the needles. I believe it was on this very day, thanks to my aunt's yellow cardigan and white blouse, that we had a conversation about colour combinations and how usually yellow and white doesn't have enough contrast to be put together. What about with grey, I asked, looking at the grey-white landscape and thinking of a lemon yellow, pale enough to be almost white. Since then I've learned a lot more about colour values, contrasts, tones - ah, who could imagine what lay ahead, especially the miles of knitting?

***

Showing in London till 28 February - ceramicist James Tower - "in a final flowering lasting nearly a decade, [he made] large glazed forms whose decorations, sometimes abstract, sometimes based on shapes and patterns found in nature, are paintings in three dimensions."
"The longer he continued working, the greater appeared his desire to exploit the irreconcilable hybridism of his making: a breadth of intellectual reference to astrophysics, atonal music or folk art was matched with a desire to explore distant ceramic traditions, whether the tiled buildings of Central Asia or the Renaissance terracotta figures of the Della Robbia family.  
"He acknowledged the specific history of clay in its many applications, because, like these examples from the past, he intended to transcend it.  In notes made towards the end of his life, Tower wrote that 'the quality which I aim for is perhaps best defined as a sense of completion.  A longing for a serene harmonious whole which contains dynamism and vitality, satisfying our intellectual and spiritual needs.  Forms which satisfy this need alleviate the sense of angst and release us into a world where abounding energy is held in a calm restraint.'"

Lost Property of London

In a pop-up shop on Piccadilly, it was the bright pink - neon pink - bag that caught my eye. It's made of reclaimed sail fabric, beautifully made, and much as I covet it, I don't "need" it. 

However I convinced myself I needed this small one, made from an upcycled rice(?) bag -

with its Liberty print and wonderful label -

Here's Katy Bell with more of her great products, and the emblematic magpie -

 If you can't go to Fortnum & Mason to choose a bag, try the Lost Property of London website.

Monday miscellany

Recycled paper bag - the paper is tyvek, "hand dyed with acrylic colours".
By Dana Poles; available here

More on the theme of "Christmas presents you didn't know you wanted or needed" - 10 of the world's best maps (here), starting with this waterproof, crumplable one -

But why stop at a map? A trip to Barcelona would be an even better present! (The metro map of Moscow is appealing - available via lineposters.com)

Design principles are explained in Molly Bang's "Picture This: How Pictures Work" - available as a book, or if you need it now, various manifestations are available as a powerpoint (via bookcandy.typepad.com/files/engl-3840-bang-principles.ppt, for instance) or pdf (via http://www.nhsdesigns.com/pdfs/graphic_ss_picture-this.pdf; the principles start on p14; take the quiz on p34) - why not try the assignment?

Do try this at home

At the craft fair

Starting to set up

The doors open before I'm ready

Friends, visitors, customers

My display included a tablecloth (mis)printed with Travel Lines

Thanks, first of all, to blog readers who sent good wishes - and to friends for coming along. Although it was only six hours, the fair was fairly quiet and time passed slowly. I did ok in terms of sales and the day produced a profit of (let's not be coy) of about £200 - which of course is risible in terms of hourly rate, given all the work involved not just in the making but in all the peripherals, an hourly rate in pence rather than pounds. Anyone who has ever gone the "handmade" sales route will recognise the situation, it's a common problem.

This was definitely a learning curve, so what have I learned? It was a question of "sight unseen" both in terms of previous craft fairs at this venue and the venue itself, so Lesson 1 is: be prepared for anything, be flexible - and make sure you have a setting-up toolkit with you. (I'll be adding those to my product range!)

Nothing could be done about the lighting level, and it was chilly. Lesson 2: wear warm clothes, bring extras, keep moving.

Nor could anything be done about the position of the table - the pillar at least was useful for displaying the price list! There was space behind the table for one or other of the sellers with tables on either side of the pillar, and on balance it was better to have the chair at the end of the table - fortunately I was at the end of the row, not in the middle. Lesson 3: if possible, request "table next to wall" or "table at end of row".

The display itself gives you lots of options. To get some "vertical impact" I used small wooden cabinets, opening the drawers for display - with storage in the closed drawers. For a screen that gave hiding places for untidy items like a coffee cup or notebook, I used A3 pieces of foam core, cutting them carefully so the backing would act as a hinge, and mounting examples of the Travel Lines, as well as a few short paragraphs giving "the story". This elicited no interest whatsoever - hey ho! 

I was able to use the Lines printed on the tablecloth as a talking point, but feel that the pattern made the tabletop look too cluttered. it could be "reconfigured" to go around the sides only, to be pinned in place.

As for talking points - I was taking this opportunity to practise telling people about the Travel Lines, what they are and how they came about and all that, but haven't got it right yet. It's an ongoing project… I did get to write some "soundscape lines" during a bout of singing - the young ladies in the barbershop quartet were really good, but their words were lost in the hubbub of general conversation.

Lesson 4, then, is along the lines of "less is more" - things will be more eye-catching if they have space around them. (The table alongside me was piled high and spilling in both directions…)

All in all, it was a good atmosphere at the fair, with mulled cider and tasty cakes and freshly-made sandwiches, and sellers with a range of goods. Very child-friendly too. I hope that next year there will be more publicity and more people will come!

To end, the seasonal decorations of the house across the street from the venue (photos by Tony Wallis) -